Available online
Description
Charles Hockett, Professor of Linguistics and Anthropology at Cornell University in New York State,has developed a system of describing the design features of communication for all animals includi...ng man. Hockett's Design Featuxes are illustrated in this programme with film animations and several examples of animal and human communication. In addition the viewer is invited to test his understanding of the system by applying some of Hockett's labels to various samples of communication behaviour.
Charles Hockett, Professor of Linguistics and Anthropology at Cornell University in New York State,has developed a system of describing the design features of communication for all animals includi...ng man. Hockett's Design Featuxes are illustrated in this programme with film animations and several examples of animal and human communication. In addition the viewer is invited to test his understanding of the system by applying some of Hockett's labels to various samples of communication behaviour.
| Module code and title: | D101, Making sense of society |
|---|---|
| Item code: | D101; 07 |
| First transmission date: | 03-04-1975 |
| Published: | 1975 |
| Rights Statement: | |
| Restrictions on use: | |
| Duration: | 00:21:00 |
| + Show more... | |
| Producer: | Vic Lockwood |
| Contributor: | Richard Stevens |
| Publisher: | BBC Open University |
| Keyword(s): | Communication behaviour; Film animations; Hockett's Design Features; Human/animal communication |
| Footage description: | Stevens shows various clips of communication - people, seals, gulls, the swans at Wells etc. Stevens, in studio, introduces the main point of the programme - Hocketts design features of communication. The list of features will be examined. For the sequences dealing with the design features, there is generally a still photograph to accompany Stevens elucidation. He goes through the features of vocal / auditory; broadcast / directional reception; rapid fading; total feedback; interchangeability. As a contrast a film of the courtship dance of sticklebacks is shown. The next group of features is examined: semanticity; arbitrariness; traditional transmission; learnability. Again as a contrast, Stevens uses film of bees in a hive to show other communication patterns. Stevens continues with human communication by examining discreteness and duality of patterning. The next four features are looked at: displacement; openness; prevarication; reflexiveness. Stevens goes back quickly over all the design features. He outlines the student exercise to be done next. Examples are given of various types of communication and Stevens asks whether certain design features are present. Shot of woman typing. Film of the courtship dance of the wandering albatross. Japanese monkeys are shown waving trees as a warning signal. Clip of mute swans in flight coordinating their flight pattern through wing beating. Seal pups barking and being recognised by their mothers through smell. Shots of tic-tac men communicating betting odds on a race course. Stevens sums up on the tests and the programme in general. Credits. |
| Master spool number: | 6HT/71716 |
| Production number: | 00525_2159 |
| Videofinder number: | 1664 |
| Available to public: | no |
